The present invention relates to simulating cardiac electrophysiology of a patient, and more particularly to patient-specific simulation of cardiac electrophysiology of a patient including the effect of the electrical conduction system of the heart for planning or guidance of electrophysiology interventions.
The prevalence of heart rhythm disease is increasing in Western countries. While primary treatments are based on drugs, minimally invasive electrophysiology (EP) therapies are becoming effective enough to be considered as viable alternatives. For example, the use of ablative therapies is increasing for treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia, while Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT) is becoming a treatment of choice for heart failure patients. However, these therapies require thorough patient selection and complex planning, and their long term efficacy is still sub-optimal. Accordingly, tools and techniques to improve patient selection, therapy planning, and interventional guidance are desirable.
Computational models for real-time simulation of cardiac EP could be used for intra-operatory guidance and optimization of an EP intervention, as well as for reducing the duration of such procedures and thus reducing patient stress, especially in the case of invasive procedures. Unfortunately, a trade-off between model accuracy and computational cost is still a challenge, and no solution has been proposed to realize real-time modeling of the patient-specific electrophysiology including the electrical conduction system of the heart.